The Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) is the primary measure of self- compassion in both social/personality psychology and clinical research (Neff, 2003). It is generally considered to measure a single overarching construct labelled “self-compassion” which is assumed to account for the variance of the measure’s six subscales. However recent work has been unable to verify the SCS factor structure and in particular the existence of this over-arching self-compassion factor (Petrocchi et al, 2013; Williams et al, 2014). This work calls into question the factorial validity of the SCS and its use of a single composite score. Researchers have also criticized the use of negatively worded items in the SCS claiming that negative items do not represent the opposite of self- compassion as the authors intended but instead represent a distinct construct that one might more accurately call self-criticism (Gilbert et al., 2011). This is in line with work showing the orthogonality of positive and negative affect systems (Watson, 1995) and recent fMRI evidence showing differential brain activation for self-reassurance, a construct similar to self- compassion, and self-criticism (Long et al., 2010). In this study we undertook to examine the factor-structure of the SCS as well as the relationship of its positive and negative items with measures of self-criticism and psychological outcomes. Introduction Self-Compassion Re-examined: Dimensionality of the Self-Compassion Scale in Multiple Samples Benjamin F. Armstrong III 1, David C. Zuroff 1, Myriam Mongrain 2, Allison C. Kelly 3, Nicola Hermanto 1, Nora Hope 1, Richard Koestner 1 1 McGill University, 2 York University, 3 University of Waterloo EFA The EFA revealed 3 factors consisting of: (1) negative items (2) common humanity and mindfulness items (3) self- kindness items: CFA CFA for the full scale revealed that the 3-factor model provided only a marginal fit for the data (CFI =.90, NNFI =.88, RMSEA =.068) and that the 6-factor model provided the best overall fit (CFI =.92, NNFI =.90; RMSEA =.063). - Adding a single second-order self-compassion factor caused the fit to become unsatisfactory (CFI =.85, NNFI =.82; RMSEA =.084). - Adding separate positive and negative second-order factors did provide acceptable fit (CFI =.91, NNFI =.89, RMSEA =.065): Correlations Correlations between positive and negative factors revealed that negative items were consistently and significantly more strongly associated with self-criticism than were positive items. Note: Correlations are for sample 1B (model df = 322). Self-criticism was found to have a significantly stronger association with negative than positive items in each individual sample. Samples Samples were drawn from community and college populations. -Sample 1 consisted of 3349 community participants recruited as part of “Project Hope” (Mongrain et al., 2010). Split into two parts (A and B) so separate EFA and CFA could be conducted -Sample 2 consisted of data from three studies conducted with college students at McGill and Waterloo Universities (N = 513; Hermanto & Zuroff, 2014; Hope et al., 2014; Kelly et al., 2014). -Sample 3 consisted of 99 college students who completed 7 nightly measures of self-compassion and other constructs. Analytic procedure 1)An EFA was initially conducted to test the factor structure of the SCS without any a priori hypotheses. 2)CFAs were then conducted to test the model derived from this EFA and to compare it to a variety of models tested in previous studies. (unless otherwise noted, statistics are from Sample 1B only) 3)Models consisting of 1, 2, 3 and 6 factors were considered as were 6-factor models with 1 or 2 higher order factors (representing a single self-compassion factor versus separate positive and negative factors). 4)Positive and negative-item factors were correlated with measures of self-criticism in multiple samples using SEM and differences in these correlations were tested for significance using model comparisons (log-likelihood ratio test). 5)Positive and negative scale scores were used to predict several psychological outcome variables Study Overview Results Conclusions Our analyses failed to support the reported factor structure of the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS: Neff, 2003). It was found that positive and negative items were best represented by separate factors and that these factors were differentially associated with self-criticism such that negative items had a strong association with self-criticism, and positive items had only a moderate association. Models tested with only positive items were found to fit the data extremely well and presented the best fit of any model tested. Further analyses revealed that separate positive and negative item scale scores each had unique variance in predicting common psychological outcomes. This was taken as further evidence that positive and negative items should not be combined into a single overall composite. Based on this evidence, we suggest that future researchers refrain from using an overall composite score to measure self-compassion and instead consider using only positive items. SK CH MI SJOI SKCHMISJOI NegativePositive Negative Positive Self-Criticism Separating negative and positive items Given the evidence that negative and positive items represent distinct factors which have a differential relationship with self-criticism, a model was tested with only positive items (the original 3 positive factors were retained). This model provided the best fit of any model tested (CFI =.95, NNFI =.93, RMSEA =.072). A corresponding model with only negative items was also found to provide good fit (CFI =.93, NNFI =.90, RMSEA =.082). Negative -vs- Positive Items – Outcomes In order to further assess the distinction between positive and negative items, models were tested in sample 3 predicting common psychological outcomes: Note: Values represent the unique effect of an averaged positive or negative SCS score (negative scores were reversed) with all variables entered simultaneously. As data were longitudinal, both between and within variables are shown. Outcome (-) Between(+) Between(-) Within(+) Within Reassured Self.25*.40*.32*.31* Negative Affect-.37* *-.08* Positive Affect.09.29*.33*.22* Compassion Goals.03.26*.04.25* (1)(2)(3)